


Detective on the Moon

by IntrovertedHappiness



Category: The Adventure Zone (Podcast)
Genre: happy day !!, n i hope the person im giving it to likes it, n im proud of it, this is for the candlenights exchange
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-10
Updated: 2020-01-10
Packaged: 2021-02-27 07:20:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,845
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22193194
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/IntrovertedHappiness/pseuds/IntrovertedHappiness
Summary: “Oh shit, I forgot you haven’t been initiated yet,” Avi said. “Uh, well. There was a town? And now there’s not.”“What do you mean?” Angus asked, pressing his pencil down to the paper. “How can a whole town just disappear?”“It’s complicated,” Avi said, rubbing his neck. “Uh, I can explain it once you’ve been initiated, I guess.”“What is the initiation process like?” Angus questioned, scribbling down a reminder that said 'ask Avi about town after initiation'. “Does it hurt?”(Angus joins the Bureau of Balance! Written for the Candlenights Exchange 2019)
Comments: 6
Kudos: 51





	Detective on the Moon

“I can’t believe we’re doing this,” Angus heard Killian muttered, face in her hands. Angus sat directly across from her and Carey, swinging his legs. Angus couldn’t really believe they were doing this either. But here he was! In this… glass cannonball, flying through the sky back up to the base of whatever organization this was.

He had found Carey and Killian in a little town just outside of Neverwinter. Angus had run up to them and requested to speak. They didn’t seem to take him seriously, which was understandable considering his age (but no less annoying every time it happened). Angus frowned, looking over them, and then said,

“We can talk here if you want.”

“Sure, kid,” Killian said offhandedly. “Knock yourself out.”

He pulled up a chair and sat next to Carey, who chuckled, presumably at the seriousness he was treating this with. He set his backpack on his lap and withdrew a thick notebook. He flipped it open and scanned a few pages before-

“I believe you two work for a secret organization that collects magical objects, is that correct?”

Needless to say, they took him seriously after that. So seriously, in fact, that they had called down this cannonball and were taking him up to their base.

“It’s cool, Kills,” Carey said, patting her shoulder. “I’m sure the Director will be cool with it. Last time you brought people up, they became Reclaimers, so.”

“They’re  _ different _ ,” Killian said, lifting her head. She cast a glance at Angus. “This is a child.”

“And the world’s greatest detective!” Angus added.

“Detective, little boy, whatever,” Killian said, waving her hand dismissively. “She’s probably just gonna like- I don’t know? What do we do with a  _ child _ ?”

“Detective,” Angus piped up again.

“No idea,” Carey said. “I’m sure it’ll be fine.”

“But-”

“It’ll be alright, ma’am!” Angus said brightly. “I’m just looking for answers. I’m sure the Director will be happy to answer them.”

“She wouldn’t kick a child off the base, would she?” Killian asked worriedly. “Where would he go? Wait, fuck, shit- kid, where are your parents?!”

“Out of the picture,” Angus said pleasantly and they shot him two weird looks.

“What does that  _ mean _ ?” Carey asked.

“It means they are no longer relevant for my situation,” Angus answered.

“Did you  _ kill them _ ?” Carey asked and Killian hit her arm gently.

“He’s seven!”

“Ten, actually,” he corrected. “And no, ma’am, I did not kill them. But I would not like to discuss it if that’s alright with you.”

“Sure, okay,” Killian said. “But we didn't like…? Kidnap you, did we?”

“No ma’am! I've been on my own for quite a few years now. I have no one place to be kidnapped  _ from _ and also I am very sure no one would notice my absence, seeing as I don't make myself known to many people.”

“That's kinda sad, kid,” Carey said and Angus shrugged.

“Sad, maybe. Freeing, most definitely!” he smiled at them and then added. “And my name is Angus McDonald, not “kid”.”

“Alright,” Carey said. “I'll try my best to call you by your name.”

“Thank you, ma’am!”

They landed on the moon, which Angus had been prepared for. He’d dug deep into history and astrology books while looking for clues of this organization and found that there had only been one moon recorded up until very recently. Not that anyone really cared, or could care, for that matter. When Angus had made this discovery, it was hard to keep hold of it. Static filled up his brain and jostled his senses until he didn’t remember learning about the fakeness of this moon at all. So, when he rediscovered the facts, he wrote it down in his journal. He had a lot of facts about this organization written down in his journal.

“Alright, Angus,” Carey said, getting up. “We’re here.”

Angus followed them out of the transportation sphere and onto the fake moon’s hanger. His head was spinning, almost painfully so, so as soon as he could, he leaned against a wall and breathed in deep. He felt someone ( _ no scales _ , his mind told him.  _ It’s Killian, not Carey _ ) pat him on the shoulder. His knees buckled a bit under the weight.

“We need to go get you uh, approved,” Killian said. “God, the Director’s gonna be upset.”

“She won’t,” Carey said. “I’ll go with you. It’ll be cool.”

“We can’t just leave the kid-  _ Angus _ , sorry- we can’t just leave Angus by himself!”

“I’ll watch him,” another voice said. Angus lifted his head and saw a human man standing a few feet away. He wore a bracer too, which meant he worked here. He waved at Angus and Angus mustered up a grin and waved back. “It’s cool, guys, I’m responsible.”

“Don’t give him any brandy, Avi,” Killian warned, but she was already walking away. “I’ll know.”

“It helps people adjust!” Avi said. He shrugged as they left and came forward to stand next to Angus. He took out a flask and drank a bit, but didn’t offer any to Angus. Angus eyed him hesitantly. He chuckled.

“This isn’t brandy,” Avi said offhandedly. “I swear. I drink other things. It’s just water.”

“I have no proof that you’re telling the truth,” Angus said, sliding down the wall to sit down on the floor. “You work here, correct?”

“Uh, yeah,” Avi said, putting the flask of  _ water _ back into his pocket and sitting down next to him.

“May I ask you a few questions, then?” Angus asked, pulling out a notebook from seemingly nowhere.

“Go for it, kiddo.”

“My name is not “kiddo”,” Angus said. “It’s detective Angus McDonald. I’m on a case and I expect you to treat me with the respect that you treat anyone else.”

“Ah, geez,” Avi said, playing up his apology a little bit, trying to make Angus feel important. It wasn’t working. “I’m sorry, Detective.”

“It’s alright,” Angus said anyway. “You’ve been working here for how long?”

“Maybe like… seven months?” Avi said. “Oh, yeah, seven months, nearly eight now.”

“And you come from?”

“Where did I live, you mean?” Avi asked and at Angus’s nod, he said. “Uh, Brandybuck. You heard of it? I mean, my family’s a bit spread out all over the place. Did have an uncle in _________ but you know what happened there.”

“In where?” Angus asked, shaking his head a bit. There was that static again- the same static he had heard on the Rockport Limited, the same static he had when trying to research this base. It was starting to get annoying.   
  


“Oh shit, I forgot you haven’t been initiated yet,” Avi said. “Uh, well. There was a town? And now there’s not.”

“What do you mean?” Angus asked, pressing his pencil down to the paper. “How can a whole town just disappear?”

“It’s complicated,” Avi said, rubbing his neck. “Uh, I can explain it once you’ve been initiated, I guess.”

“What is the initiation process like?” Angus questioned, scribbling down a reminder that said  _ ask Avi about town after initiation _ . “Does it hurt?”

“I mean, kinda?” Avi said. “You’re not gonna die or anything, of course. But like… it’s mentally taxing.”

“Hm,” is all Angus said. He wrote down:  _ Initiation is “mentally taxing”, be prepared to be overwhelmed. Keep cool _ . “Is there anything you can-”

“We’re back!” Carey said, slamming open the door. Angus jumped, dropping his pencil. He scooped it back up and stuffed his journal away before standing up. Killian came in behind Carey and grinned. Avi stood up too, stretching.

“Good luck, then, Angus,” Avi said, going back to where he had been standing. “Feel free to come visit lil’ ol’ Avi any time you want.”

“Thank you, sir,” Angus said. He turned to Carey and Killian and dusted off his shirt. “Am I being initiated?”

“Yep,” Killian said. She held open the door for him and Angus sped out with a nod. “Gotta go see the ________ now, I suppose.”

“The what?” Angus asked, pausing. They were outside the hanger now, standing on a grassy field. There were dome-shaped buildings all around and above them was the other moon, hung perfectly in the sky.

“You’ll get it in a second,” Carey said. “Come on.”

They led him across the quad to one of the dome-shaped buildings. Inside, there was a wall with a door leading into it. Carey put her bracer near it and the door reacted, sliding open. Carey and Killian both stepped away and looked at him expectantly.

“We can’t really uh, go down there,” Killian said. “It’s real high security, you know?”

“It sounds like a trap,” Angus said. “Tell me what’s down there and maybe I’ll go.”

“It’s not a trap,” Killian said. “It’s- ugh, how do I explain it without the static? It’s the initiation process. You’ll have to drink this thing and it’s gonna taste gross but-”

“Is it poison?” Angus asked.

“No! No, it’s not poison, you’re a kid! We’re not gonna poison you!” Killian said, seeming offended at the very idea. “It’s- fine, you wanna know? You’re gonna go down and see the ________ and then someone will give you some _____ to drink from its ____ and it’s gonna be kinda gross like I said, but then you’ll _____ ___________ ___ ____ and-”

“Okay!” Angus said. “I’ll go!” He hopped in the elevator and quickly found the button to shut the doors. He waved at Carey and Killian for hopefully not the last time as the doors closed. The descent began. There’s nice music.

It took a while to get to the bottom. Angus went over what he knew about this base already.

  1. The three folks he met on the Rockport Limited are a part of this
  2. The static covers up important information
  3. Avi is probably drinking brandy and not water
  4. The quad outside seems to have real grass and not that fake shit.
  5. The initiation process is something everyone has to do, so it probably doesn’t have poison.
    1. Probably



The music stopped and a bell rang before the doors slid open. It led into a short hallway with a door on the other end. A few guards stood there, protecting the door. Upon seeing Angus, they looked confused. The only guard who  _ doesn’t _ look confused leans over and nudges the others, whispering something.

“Initiate?” one guard asks simply and Angus nods, coming up to them. He holds out a hand for them to shake.

“My name is Angus McDonald,” Angus said and the guards cast a glance at each other but shrug. None of them shake his hand but one of them does open the door with his bracer. Angus entered.

The room had bad lighting. Everything was dim and sort of cramped. There were a few guards in here, too, standing next to a huge tank and the walls. Angus’s head hurt looking at that tank. It wasn’t bright, it wasn’t flashy, but his mind was filled with static trying to comprehend it. He squinted at it and swore he saw something moving, before looking away.

Someone else, besides the guards, was in here too. A half-elf man sat at a desk, plucking lazily on a fiddle. Angus saw the bow of the fiddle on the desk, next to some papers. The half-elf man looked up at him as he came further into the room, but didn’t say anything. One of the guards near the tank was filling up a vial with fluid from the tank. He came over to Angus and put it in his hands.

“Drink,” the guard said simply and Angus nodded. He thought about how Avi said this would be mentally taxing and asked,

“Can I sit down anywhere first?”

“Uh,” the guard said, clearly not expecting that.

“Because Mr. Avi upstairs said that this would be taxing to deal with and I don’t wanna just… collapse if it’s too much.”

“Uh,” the guard repeated.

“Come sit over here,” the half-elf man said. His bracer glinted in the dim light as he got up and offered his chair to Angus. Angus scurried over and sat down. Before anyone could say anything else, he downed the vial in one sip.

Angus’s mind  _ reeled _ . He’s glad at once he sat down because now he’s clutching his head, shaking slightly. He remembers what Killian had said just a few minutes ago, telling him what would happen if he drank this. She told him about the  _ Voidfish  _ and the  _ wars _ . He remembers Avi telling him about  _ Phandalin  _ and how it got destroyed. And he now, on his own, remembered Phandalin. Ever so briefly hearing about it, how it got swallowed up in flames. And he was remembering the wars, even if he hadn’t been born.

He remembered these objects, these relics, that everyone fought for and everyone killed for. It seemed impossible to him that people had just  _ forgotten _ that they lost loved ones, homes, cities in these wars.

Even more impossible, Angus realized when he looked up, was the giant creature in that tank in front of him. It looked like a huge jellyfish, but with galaxies and nebulas swarming inside it. It was beautiful and Angus could comprehend its existence now. All the dizziness and terribleness he felt from the static was gone. He was left with just awe and questions. So, so many questions.

“Who made the relics?” was the first thing out of Angus’s mouth. The half-elf looked a bit startled.

“Uh, the red robes- hang on a sec, you okay? It’s like, a lot to process and you look like-  _ really young  _ to be here.”

“I’m fine!” Angus said, and he was. “Honestly! Can you explain the red robes to me? Who were they?”

“I think that’s a question for the director?” the half-elf said. “Look, I can take you to her, I guess. I’ve got nothing else to do and you’ll need to speak to her anyway.”

“Thank you!” Angus said, hopping up. He handed the vial back to the nearest guard and made his way towards the door again, the half-elf following behind him hurriedly.

“Who are you, by the way?” the half-elf asked, a bit out of breath, as they waited for the elevator to open.

“My name is Angus McDonald,” Angus said, making his way into the elevator once it opened. “You are?”

“Johann,” the half-elf answered. “I’m- well, I feed the Voidfish. That big jellyfish thing back there?”

“Amazing,” Angus said. “What do they eat?”

“Music,” Johann answered, sadly. He pressed a button and the elevator doors shut. They started going up. “And uh, other information. But music is the easiest to make and feed them.”

“So you play them songs?” Angus asked.

“I  _ write _ and play them songs,” Johann answered. “It’s all of my original pieces, which uhhh, sucks, I think. But we can’t really feed them music that everyone already knows. That’d suck an equal amount.”

“Oh,” Angus said, understanding Johann’s sadness now. “But no one will ever hear your songs if you do that.”

“Yeah, I know,” he answered, shoving his hands into his pockets. “As I said, it sucks.”

“It really does,” Angus said. “I hope- I hope you can play for people one day.”

“That’s the dream, isn’t it?”

When the doors slid open again, Angus was surprised to find Carey and Killian still waiting for him. They were sitting on the ground, playing Fantasy Uno. Carey played a red seven and called Uno. From where Angus stood, he could see that she only had a red four left. But Killian grinned nervously and placed down a red two.

“I  _ win _ !” Carey said, slamming down her last card. Killian groaned.

“You’re playing Fantasy Uno without me?” Johann asked, tone still sad.

“Johann!” Carey said, turning to face them. “Angus! How’d it go, dude?”

“It went well, ma’am,” Angus said, already going to exit the building. “We’re on the way to see the director.”

“Wait for us!” Killian said and Angus heard them hurriedly picking up their cards. They led him across the quad again and into the largest dome-building. It seemed like a throne room, almost, because there was a throne in it. Sitting on said throne was an older human woman, talking with a few people. Upon their entrance, she dismissed all except one little gnome man. She stood and he stood next to her, smiling widely.

“Welcome to the Bureau of- oh shit, you are young,” the human woman said. Angus scowled a bit.

“I’m ten years old, ma’am, I’m perfectly capable of many things,” Angus said. “My name is Angus McDonald. You’re the director, right?”

“Yes,” she said, regaining her composure a little bit. “Welcome to the Bureau of Balance, Mr. McDonald. I understand you’ve been uh, researching us for quite a bit.”

“Yes ma’am!” Angus said. “And I’m not gonna lie, you were hard to track down.”

“No problem for the world’s greatest detective, though,” the director said. Angus grinned.

“None at all, ma’am. Do you mind if I asked you a few questions?”


End file.
